Shards of Darkness: Tides of the Storm
by Koryn Tier
Summary: A theif gets dragged into an adventure with a ranger, and a new world seems to open up to him.


Prologue  
  
Legacy of the Azure Elves  
  
At the foot of the Daer'Mithar mountains lay a city, where a strange but peaceful race resided. The place was not a bustling city with many inhabitants, but the population was formidable. It surrounded a lake that lay in the center of the city. This place was not a friendly place that would openly welcome travelers, but they would never go out in search of troubles or battles.This place, known as Azure city because of the faint azure glow that the lake gave off when the moon hit it right, was home of the Azure Elves. This elves have not been around forever, and only recently have been accepted into historians books as a race, and not just a collection of mix-breed elves. These elves that inhabit this small city are a mix of Drow, Wild Elf, and Grey Elf. How did all of these types of elves manage to live together with out killing each other?  
  
Well, during a great freezing of a lot of the world, a Drow raiding party had come from the underdark in order to raid the Grey elf inhabitants of this city. However, the Grey elves were at the time at war with the Wild elves of a nearby forest. Many of the elves were killed, and many more wounded. As the Drow and the Wild elves prepared to leave, the Wild elves found the only exit back to their homeland was covered by a recent avalanche. Also, the tunnels the the Drow had used to get to the city was covered in ice. How strange it had been that such horrible coincidences had occurred. The elves were forced to live together through the winter thinking it would all melt away when summer came around again. There were small battles between the races until one day, the lake was discovered to have fish that lived underneath the ice all year round. The three races decided to band together to get through the winter, but th all wanted to promptly get away when summer came, however, that day never came, and the winter continued through out the year and many more to come. This great freeze lasted five-thousand years, but the fish supply never seemed to run out. Through out the many, many years, the races eventually became intertwined so much that there were no more distinguishing signs of what they once were. Thus the Azure Elves were born.  
  
The Azure elves are roughly the same height as normal elves, but are generally a bit lighter, considering what the had mostly to live on was fish. They have pale skin, but it is tinted a little darker by the Drow blood that runs through their veins. The hair color of the Azure elves is typically a dark brownish-red with usually a few gold, silver, or white streaks running through it. The eyes of the Azure elves is truly a remarkable thing. There is no set eye color for Azure elves, but it changes depending what season of the year it is. During the bright warm months of summer their eyes are shining green, radiating like the leaves of a tree in mid-summer's dawn. But in the winter they change to cold orbs of darkness as dark as the deepest pit in the Underdark.   
  
When the Great Freeze had ended, people were confused at the 'sudden' appearance of the Azure elves. At first the Azure elves were rejected, and considered to be the result of some magic experiment, but eventually they came to accept the Azure elves. However, many still hold a grudge against the Azure elves.  
  
This story is about a lone Azure elf, cast out of his city for crimes against his own people. Cast into the underdark, he was raised by his forefathers, the Drow. There that elf would learn the secrets of his people, and learn even more about what horrors, and beauties, lay around the world. This is that elf's story.  
  
Chapter 1  
  
Exile & Rebirth  
  
Raen Khiljaeden was born and raised with the Azure elves, as many others had before him. Raen was short, even by elven terms, but other than that, he fit the perfect description of an average Azure elf. However, this small elf, often mistaken for a child, had a strange urge to do more with his life than just sit in his village, eating fish. Raen had planned to become a guard or a soldier, wanting to live his life as a warrior that traveled the world fighting evil monsters. But a childish dream can often turn out for the worst. In his attempts to become a warrior, Raen discovered that he had a special talent: Pick Pocketing. Raen could say hello to you, give you a hug, and steal some valuable item out of your backpack without even the slightest notice. This life of crime then became Raen's occupation, and his passion. Only once had he been caught, and that time was probably the worst time to get caught.  
  
Raen had been on a routine theft, stealing from a bustling shop owner that rarely ever noticed Raen enter the store. Raen had no idea that wizard was watching the store through a crystal ball. The shop owner had paid the wizard to scry on the store because he noticed a few items missing. Actually, Raen had stolen a lot more than a few, but he would replace them with fakes, make of weaker, less expensive materials. The shop keeper held Raen in the store, and called the guards. Raen was promptly thrown out of the city, and its walls closed behind him forever.  
  
Having lived inside the city for his whole life, Raen knew little of the outside world. Raen lived in a cave which he shared with a few other nomadic people during the winter, but when spring came he decided to set out to find another place to live.   
  
Raen found shelter among his ancestors, the Drow, in a city called Maesthranohl. Though they lived in the Underdark, a world that was beneath the ground, shielded from the sun, and the light it cast upon the earth. During his 76 years in the Underdark, Raen learned of the great god, Luneftis, God of Chaos. Raen learned that many Drow cities worship gods without question, and even base their lives around what the god says. Even if they are told to kill their children. Luneftis however, felt a deep hatred for all of those other cities and their gods. In Maesthranohl, Luneftis still ruled supreme, but he urged the people to strike up lives of their own, and live for themselves. Luneftis's teachings were to be remembered and displayed, but Luneftis showed no force against people who did not worship his religion, but if any of the other gods sent people to change and corrupt he would deal with them immediately.   
  
In one of Luneftis's teaching, it speaks of the downfall of the old world. One of the gods, Jevihut (though he went by a different name then), had established a firm grasp on the humans that populated the world. Other religions still survived on the planet, but Jevihut sent his followers to change and corrupt all into believing in his teachings. The smaller religions stuck back, and 'Nuclear War' broke out. None know quite exactly what a 'Nuclear War' is, except for the gods, but the people knew that it was bad, and destroyed most of the life on earth. It also changed humans, thus creating the multitudes of races that populate the earth now.  
  
As the years of my time increased, Raen longed for the sun again. The Underdark was the home of his ancestors, but he was raised outside, on the surface, and he wanted to be back there again. Raen left the Underdark after 76 years, and took up residence in a nearby surface village, where he began again his life of pick pocketing, and stealing.  
  
Another unfortunate accident occurred during one of his thefts, and Raen found himself in the company of a Human, another elf, and a dwarf. The proposed a settlement: Raen would travel with them to a dwarf city. Their party had recently lost a member, and need the extra help. Raen, not wanting to get thrown out of another city, went with the group.  
  
The human, Vaen, was a giant of a man, standing almost a foot and a half taller than Raen, and weighing more than twice as much. The man was oddly attractive for a human, with long dark hair, and a thin beard. The man's blue eyes shined radiantly when he looked at the sun. He was a Ranger, and very in touch with nature. Whenever battle range, he had a beautiful gem encrusted bastard sword, and a fine long bow that was most obviously made by elves.He had a great, happy spirit, and was eager to take on any foe.  
  
The elf was a thief, just like Raen. He was slightly taller than him, probably standing about 5'1". He also weighed slightly more than him. He fought with (Description unknown). He appeared to dislike Raen, not liking the addition of another thief to the party. But Raen figured that eventually he would warm up to him.  
  
The dwarf, known as Argo Fellhammer was horribly short, but he had the ego of someone 5 times his size. Raen had to hold himself back from spitting in his face, and beating the shit out of him. Despite Raen's utter hatred for the dwarven race, he recognized the dwarf's aid in battle. He was a cleric, and would cast spells to aid the other members of the party. He wore heavy plated armor, not that anyone would ever hit him (except Raen) and carried a large mace.   
  
Before Raen had left the city, he 'borrowed' a pair of katars, a black cloak, and a studded leather shirt from one of his favorite stores. Raen was informed that the party was guarding and escorting the dwarf to his home city. Raen tried to ask him what business he had that was so important that he needed three bodyguards, but the dwarf simply ignored it, further fueling Raen's hatred.  
  
After a few days of traveling, and a few random battles with hostile forest creatures. They finally reached the outer walls of the dwarven city.  
  
8  
  
8 


End file.
